Phoenix Inspirations

It's my turn to do the mid-week motivation over on the  Make My Monday  challenge blog. The challenge this week is Balloons and today I have some party balloons for you - take a look Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Up, Up & Away (retired), Sassy Salutations Ink: Smoky Slate, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana Card Stock: Whisper White Accessories: Dimensionals (To order any of the above current items or items from the Annual Catalogue please e-mail me on deezinesart@gmail.com - a catalogue pdf can be found in the side bar. Items can be delivered direct to you - just £4.95 p+p any size order. Also see the special offers above in the top tabs - thanks). Thanks for stopping by today to take a look - see you soon -

A little late but here is my card for this week's challenge at  Make My Monday  - it's my choice this week and I've chosen - BALLOONS I have to apologise as I am taking liberties again and using a retired set. I chose this challenge way back and didn't realise that by this time the Up, Up and Away set would be retired! Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Up, Up & Away (retired) Ink: Soft Sky, Old Olive, Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar Card Stock: Whisper white, Tempting Turquoise Accessories: Dimensionals, Modern Label Punch (To order any of the above current items or items from the Annual Catalogue please e-mail me on deezinesart@gmail.com - a catalogue pdf can be found in the side bar. Items can be delivered direct to you - just £4.95 p+p any size order. Also see the special offers above in the top tabs - thanks). Thanks for looking - hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having - seen an...

That's the challenge Suzi has for us over on the  Make My Monday  blog today - she also has a fabulous PRIZE to give away to the winner of this challenge so do pop over and take a look. Here is my card - inside and out I chose balloons as I love it when we are out for a drive over the Malvern Hills in summer and we see balloons - we have a great view of them up there. I know they don't have wings and don't technically fly but they are up in the air and that's god enough for me (and the DT 'cos I did check with them first!). I can't wait to see what you make of this challenge - here's what I used to make my card today Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Up, Up & Away Ink: Tempting Turquoise. Old Olive, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango Card Stock: Whisper White, Tangerine Tango Paper: Sunshine and Showers DSP Accessories: Petite Curly Label Punch, Dimensionals,Tangerine Tango Ribbon (Please do drop me an e-mail if you would l...

This I believe is my last challenge of the year - my last DT piece anyway! It's a sketch challenge for  CAS - Colours & Sketches  - take a look Here is my card This is one of my favourite sets plus I love red polka dots! Materials Stamps: Up, Up & Away Ink: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Gumball Green, Early Espresso Card Stock: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point (e-mail me on deezinesart@gmail.com to order any of the current Stampin' Up range - more details in the top tab) Thanks to all my followers for being there and leaving me loads of lovely comments - Happy New Year to you and all my readers - see you next year! - Jacqueline xx

Another balloon card today (I love these stamps) and another challenge this time it's  CASology Isn't it funny how sometimes you get a great idea for a card but the finished article is nothing like what you imagined? That's just what happened with this card I won't bore you with too many details but in my head it should have been a lot brighter and I was going to sponge all my edges - doh! I am however pleased with my embossing and you can actually see it on my photograph! I used some Anna Griffin paper, Up, Up and Away stamp set and Tangerine Tango, Island Indigo and Chocolate Chip inks. The balloon and clouds have been popped up on 3D foam pads. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look - Jacqueline xx

I have been a bit too busy lately to make any cards to enter into challenges but the sketch at  Simply Stampin'  this week has been on my mind and so I decided to join in. Here is the sketch Sketches are probably my favourite kind of challenge as the content is up to you as long as the basic layout can be seen. I chose to use my Up, Up and Away set this time a gorgeous little set with loads of balloons and fab sentiments. Here is my card See the red scalloped edge on the left - that is made by stamping the polka dot balloon 5 times, cutting them out and then laying them along the length of the card. To disguise the joins I added some tiny flowers and pearls. All my papers are various pieces of Stampin' Up DSP along with Whisper White and Cherry Cobbler card stock. My ink colours are Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight. See you soon - Jacqueline xx

We have a brand new challenge for you over on  Addicted to Stamps  and this time it's CARDS FOR BOYS I've seen a few cards like this floating around blogland and I thought that the style was perfect for this challenge - take a look I'm not much of a sports person but this was a lovely card to make as it uses one of my favourite techniques - masking and brayering. I cut some clouds from post-it-notes and used my brayer and some Bashful Blue ink to create the sky. My grass is torn green paper and I stole a wooden skewer from the kitchen to make my flag stick. My golf ball is a white card stock circle run through my Cuttlebug in the Swiss Dots folder - I stuck it on the opposite way round so it looked more realistic. My sentiment and the birds are from the Up, Up and Away set. Don't forget to hop over to the blog and take a look at the stunning work by my fellow team mates and if you are quick there's still a few days left to take part in our monthly scrapbo...

It's a One Layer challenge this week at  Less is More  with the added extra of things in 3's - here is my card And here's how I made it: Post it notes to mask off a square and to make my 3 clouds 3 blues to stamp my images: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist and Pacific Point. 3 Balloons from Up, Up and Away plus 3 birds flying in the sky 3 little words - just for you - from Just Believe. Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

Whilst visiting some blogs today I came across a new challenge blog CASology This Tuesday saw the start and their very first challenge asking for cards with a very unfamiliar theme - take a look When was the last time we saw the sun and I don't mean fleetingly through scudding black clouds but shining down from a sky of blue?! Hmmmm. Anyway my card can be viewed from two different angles -  So this could be a card to the sun 'cos I'm sure we all do miss it, but really it's a card for a friend which is why it's also for  Mynnette's  Spread the Love campaign My sun is die cut on my Cuttlebug and the sentiment is from Up, Up and Away - coloured with markers. Thanks for stopping by today - hope you've had a good one - Jacqueline xx

Mmmm - how do you like my tasty title - I just love the yummy names Stampin' Up use for their colours and today's card is no exception as it uses Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler - take a look I started with a 5" x 5" card base and added a piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock. Added to that was some Whisper White and Crumb Cake. The Crumb Cake card stock was stamped with one of the balloon shapes from the set Up, Up & Away - I thought they made a lovely petal shape. To the middles I then added some flowers punched from the Crumb Cake and some Liquid Pearls. I shall be entering this card into this week's  Dynamic Duos  challenge Thanks for stopping by to take a look - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's arrived - the first ever challenge for  Addicted to Stamps  and the challenge is to: Make Your Mark That is you create your project using markers - Promarkers, Copics, Stampin' Write markers etc. I love my Promarkers and have used them a lot in the past but just at the moment my preference is my Stampin' Write markers. They are special in that they can colour directly on to your stamps. So instead of one stamp inked with one ink pad you can colour each individual element of one stamp in a different colour. Here is my very first dt piece for the challenge Can you see how each stripe on the balloons is coloured differently? I love that about these markers. To match the colours of my balloons I have also coloured the tiny flowers with markers and the sentiment label. My sky and hills were sponged with ink that had been scribbled onto an acrylic block - careful when doing this as the ink is more concentrated than when it comes off the ink pad, My stamps are: Up,...

Things have settled down for a while: all the Jubilee celebrations are over, the craft fairs have happened and the workshops done and dusted. Dad's chemo is keeping him well and my Grandad who was having various tests and scans has now been given the all clear - life is good and I have time to craft and even better - brilliant challenges to take part in! Here's my card My sky has been stamped using a post it note mask and Tempting Turquoise ink, my balloons (from the Up, Up & Away set) have been stamped in Tangerine Tango and Cherry Cobbler ink - the base card is Very Vanilla. These are the challenges I am entering this card into; Simply Stampin'  - Colour Challenge CAS-ual Fridays  - Create a Clean and Simple project using polka dots/ Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

The challenge this week over on  Make My Monday  is a Birthday Card with Pearls, so for this week's Mid-week Motivation piece I made a Joy Fold card - take a look I have used some of my S'U Beyond the Garden DSP for this and the Greenhouse Garden stamp set. I've also used a variety of colours: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Blushing Bride and Melon Mambo. Here's how it stays shut I placed a cut out flower on the corner - I also embellished each flower with a blob of liquid pearls. Here's the Birthday sentiment It's from the Up, Up and Away set. This is also the card we will be making at my Tuesday morning workshop next week and as always I will post a step by step tutorial on how to make this card on my  Craft Club Blog  - stay tuned for a link in the side bar. Thanks for stopping by to take a look today - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

I have just taken possession of a fabulous new stamp set - Up, Up & Away. It's a gorgeous set with balloons galore, take a look at the card I have made with it I've chosen mainly primary colours for this - Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise and Real Red and I have also followed this week's sketch over on  Retro Sketches The images of the houses are from the retired set Good Neighbors which I have stolen from my friend Beverley - she doesn't know it yet but she's not getting it back mwahahahaha. There are two more challenges I'd like to enter this card into, firstly  Crafty Cardmakers  - this week my great friend Mynnette is the hostess and as it was her birthday this month she chose the subject 'Birthday Balloon Bonanza' And then lastly I hope I can squeeze it into the  Polka Doodles  challenge where they are celebrating their 3rd birthday and want to see '3' of something - I have used 3 balloons and 3 flowers on my card...